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9 Oct 2006 : Column 517W—continued
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average salary is of a (a) police inspector, (b) chief inspector, (c) police superintendent and (d) assistant chief constable, broken down by region. [90095]
Mr. McNulty: Information on average salary is not held centrally. Information on pay scales for all police ranks is available from the website of the Office of Manpower Economics at www.ome.uk.com. The following table details the ranks requested compiled from this source.
South East England Allowance is paid in certain forces at the following rates:
Essex, Herts, Kent, Surrey, Thames Valley: £2,000
Bedfordshire, Hampshire, Sussex: £1,000
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much has been spent by Dorset police in preparing for possible constabulary mergers. [89966]
Mr. McNulty: At the Home Office’s invitation, all the police forces and police authorities in England and Wales have submitted claims for the additional costs which they have incurred in preparation for police force amalgamations. In the case of the forces in the South-West region, a joint claim was submitted, covering Dorset, Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, for the sum of £140,836.
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take steps to compensate the Hertfordshire Police Force for the expenditure occasioned to it by his proposals to merge police forces. [91772]
Mr. McNulty: At the Home Office's invitation, Hertfordshire police authority has submitted a claim for reimbursement of the additional costs incurred by the force in responding to the then Home Secretary's proposals for police force restructuring. The claim is for £144,327. All claims from police forces and police authorities in England and Wales have now been received by the Home Office and we expect to make an announcement shortly on how much of the claims will be reimbursed.
Pre-sentencing Reports
John Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether national standards apply to writing pre-sentencing reports. [90116]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Where a court requests a report from the National Probation Service prior to sentencing, an appropriate assessment will be made of the offender's risk of harm and the likelihood of re-offending, in order to inform the court of a clear and realistic proposal for sentence or remand.
National standards for the Probation Service are published in the document “National Standards 2005” copies of which can be obtained in the Library and at the following website address: http://www.probation.homeoffice.gov.uk/output/page32.asp#GuideWwO.
The national standards specific to pre-sentence reports are SS2.5 to SS2.13. These are set out as follows.
National Standards 2005—Pre-Sentence Reports
Offenders will be offered at least one face-to-face interview (which can be made via a video link where this is available and appropriate) in order to inform the report.
In all cases in which a report is requested, the National Probation Service will, as a minimum:
obtain an OGRS score, giving a calculation of likelihood of reconviction;
complete the OASys Risk of Harm screening tool;
Unless the court directs otherwise, a full OASys assessment does not need to be completed if both of the following conditions are met:
the risk of harm screening shows that a full risk of harm analysis is not required, and
the OGRS score is less than 41
Unless the court directs otherwise, a full OASys assessment will be completed if one or more of the following conditions are met:
the risk of harm screening shows that a full risk of harm analysis is required;
the OGRS score is 41 or over;
the court has adjourned for a full report because of the seriousness of the offence;
the offender is a locally defined prolific or other priority offender.
Written reports to inform sentencing will:
be based on the appropriate risk/needs assessment in accordance with SS2.6 to SS2.8;
be objective, impartial, free from discriminatory language and stereotype, balanced, verified and factually accurate;
only include information from the victim where it is drawn from the CPS papers or from a victim personal statement;
satisfy the content, style and quality requirements defined in guidance by the National Probation Directorate;
be completed using nationally approved report formats;
be copied to the court, the defence, the defendant and (where required by section 159 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003) the prosecution.
Reports will make a clear proposal for sentence (including custody) taking into account the seriousness of the offence, and the purpose of sentencing.
Reports will make clear, in an outline sentence plan, what requirements are envisaged, including outline timescales, and how the sentence is likely to be implemented, including any plans for sequencing interventions.
Reports will be prepared within the timescale set by the commissioning court.
Where it has not been possible to complete a report for the court, for whatever reason, including non-attendance by the offender at interview, the report writer will notify the court at the earliest opportunity that a report will not be available for the hearing and submit in writing the reasons why the report has not been completed.
Prisons
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) remand prisoners and (b) convicted prisoners died in custody in HMP Brixton (i) in each of the last nine calendar years for which figures are available and (ii) between 1 January and 13 July 2006; and what the cause of death was in each case in which no legal proceedings are outstanding. [86400]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 18 July 2006]: The number of all deaths at HMP Brixton in each year, 1997-2005, and between 1 January and 13 July 2006 is shown in the table.
| Apparent cause of death( 1) | Legal status | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 203 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 (to 13 July) |
| (1) This column shows the apparent cause of death, as categorised by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS); this categorisation is not dependent on legal proceedings (i.e. inquest). (2) ‘Other non-natural deaths include apparent accidental deaths (e.g. drug overdoses) (3) NOMS employs the term 'self-inflicted death' rather than suicide. This includes all deaths where it appears the individual has acted specifically to take their own life, and not only those that receive an 'open' or 'suicide' verdict at inquest | |||||||||||
Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had with A4E on pension rights for staff on the Offender Learning and Skills programme at HMP Standford Hill in Sittingbourne and Sheppey constituency. [89256]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Prison Service officials have twice met A4E, in addition to extensive correspondence about pensions protection for staff who will be transferred from Standford Hill prison to A4E. The Government Actuary's Department and the Actuaries for the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme are satisfied that A4E's pension scheme meets Government guidelines for such transfers as set out in the Treasury guidance “A Fair Deal for Staff Pensions”.
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what proportion of women on reception at prison were assessed as (a) being misusers of alcohol, (b) being misusers of drugs, (c) suffering mental ill-health and (d) any one of these in each of the last three years for which figures are available; [89369]
(2) what proportion of women discharged from prison had intervention while in prison to address (a) misuse of alcohol, (b) misuse of drugs, (c) mental ill-health and (d) any one of these in each of the last three years for which figures are available. [89370]
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